The Lonely Hearts Club (22 page)

Their mouths were an inch apart and Liz wanted to kiss her. Instead, she danced her fingers through the shaggy hair at the back of Reilly’s neck. “You need a haircut.”

“Do I?” Reilly’s voice was husky as she ran her hands up and down Liz’s back, her fingers tracing the muscles on either side of her spine.

“Where’d my seat go?” Parker said, searching behind her with one hand.

“Hold on,” Reilly whispered to Liz.

“What?” Liz asked.

Reilly slipped one arm under Liz’s hips, tightened her hold around her middle, and shifted to the far outside seat. Settling Liz securely back down in her lap, she said, “Go ahead, Parker. The coast is clear.”

Parker sat heavily, taking up most of the two seats Reilly and Liz had just vacated. Liz had nowhere to go, and she really didn’t want to move, not when sitting crosswise in Reilly’s lap with Reilly’s arms around her waist felt so damn good. Nothing about Reilly’s embrace suggested anything other than a friendly closeness, but her body was hard and hot, except where the soft swell of her breasts fit against Liz’s. She felt so good, so right, Liz had to struggle not to burrow her hips tighter into Reilly’s lap and bury her face in the inviting curve of Reilly’s neck. Her physical response to Reilly always took her by surprise, because she wasn’t used to being so easily aroused. Maybe her susceptibility was partly hormones, but she didn’t care. She liked the feeling, and as long as she remembered nothing was going to come of it, she might as well enjoy the guilty pleasure.

“I guess I’m here for a while,” Liz said.

“That’s okay.”

“Am I blocking your view?” Liz asked.

Reilly laughed. “No, but even if you were, it wouldn’t matter. I’ll take you in my lap over one of them any day.”

A rush of heat made every inch of Liz’s skin tingle. “I wasn’t planning to lap dance.”

“Too bad. I bet you’d be good at it.”

“Maybe one of these days I’ll give it a try,” Liz said, enjoying the little flirtation.

“Just say the word.”

The lights dimmed, and Liz relaxed in Reilly’s arms, anticipating the next act. It was nice not to think about anything for a few minutes, but just to enjoy what was happening. Being around Reilly always made her feel lighthearted. She recognized the feeling as happiness, and recognized, too, how unusual it was.

*

Parker swayed toward Candace and muttered, “Miss me?”

“Not in the least.” Candace got up and pushed past Bren. “Excuse me.”

“Where’s she going?” Parker asked.

Bren reached across the empty chair and patted Parker’s thigh. “Probably to the bathroom.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ll wait.”

Bren half smiled, wishing she could orchestrate her friends’ lives as easily as she did the characters in her books. But she should probably start with her own life first, and so far, she hadn’t done so well with that. She slipped her hand into the front pocket of her leather pants and felt the small stiff card.
I want to dance for you.

As the room dropped into darkness, Bren wondered if the message was metaphorical or real, or if there was any difference at all.

Settling back, she watched the now familiar sharp cone of light focus on the far right-hand corner of the stage. Jae might not even be here. Just because the note was here and the email message had said she would be here, didn’t mean it was true. In fact, Bren was more than half certain the entire thing was an elaborate hoax. A woman strode into the light and Bren sat up straight. She’d been wrong again. Jae
was
here.

“Looks like she wandered into the wrong joint,” Parker said in what Bren supposed was intended to be a whisper. She couldn’t answer because she was trying to take in every single detail, and she didn’t know where to look first.

Her gaze danced from the thick mane of black hair to the deep set dark eyes to the square jaw softened by a wide sensuous mouth. Bren registered beauty, pride, sensuousness in the instant before she became captivated by the sight of bare breasts crisscrossed with leather straps. The inch-wide leather bands met in the center of a long flat abdomen where they attached to a wide silver ring. A matching pair of straps shot out from the lower portion of the ring and disappeared into skintight leather pants. Another band circled her waist. Her small, high breasts were distinctly different than the augmented ones of most of the other dancers, round and firm with small dark nipples. An elaborate tribal tattoo scrolled from her muscular right deltoid down her upper arm, wrapped around her biceps, and ended on the inside of her forearm just above her wrist. The leather pants covered the tops of black boots.

She was the woman in Bren’s books. She was the woman from the softball field. She was the woman in Bren’s every fantasy. She was Jae.

Jae looked out over the audience, her expression almost arrogant, before her gaze settled on Bren and she lowered her thick-lashed lids once in slow acknowledgment. Then she turned and strode to the center pole, the light following her. When she reached it, she faced the audience, stretched her arms above her head and grasped the pole behind her, thrusting her pelvis toward the onlookers. The music pounded steadily, echoing the roar of Bren’s heart thudding inside her head.

From out of the inky darkness behind Jae, a woman’s arms encircled Jae’s torso and long fingered hands with blood red nails resembling talons cupped her breasts. A figure pressed against Jae from behind, the pole between them, the light from the spot angled sharply so that all Bren could see were glimpses of pale naked limbs. Bren watched Jae’s face as the disembodied hands twisted her nipples and tormented her breasts before slithering lower over her chest and abdomen, stroking, clawing, threatening to slash her skin open with their razor-sharp tips. Pleasure and pain fused into need as Jae’s skin broke out into a shining sweat and her hips writhed.

“Jesus,” Parker muttered from beside her. “That is so fucking hot.”

The words floated past Bren as if uttered in another dimension. Nothing penetrated her awareness except Jae. The woman behind Jae gripped the waistband of Jae’s pants in both hands and wrenched the leather sharply back and forth. The tearing sound ripped through Bren and made her jerk in her seat. The leather came away in the invisible woman’s hands, and she threw it aside. The black leather straps stretched down from the silver ring in the center of Jae’s abdomen to circle the insides of her thighs. Her shaved sex was framed by the leather, and nothing else.

Naked except for the leather straps slashing across her body, Jae kept a grip on the pole above her head. Her thighs trembled as one blood-tipped finger circled in the top of the cleft between her legs. Her back arched, her hips thrust, and she swallowed convulsively. Bren wondered at the control it took for her to keep her hands on the pole, to hold herself up, to offer her body to be used.

“I think she’s gonna come right there,” Parker exclaimed, sliding closer to Bren.

“No she’s not,” Bren said, watching Jae’s lids flicker and her lips part on a moan that was lost in the pounding beat. The arousal was real, she could see it in the way Jae’s body jerked as the hand stroked harder and faster between her legs. “She’ll save her pleasure for someone who deserves it.”

The music climbed wildly, Jae’s pelvis thrust under the invading hand, and when the crescendo peaked, she finally released her grip on the pole and collapsed to her knees, her chest heaving. The room plunged into darkness and utter silence fell. In the blackness, Bren heard Jae sob for breath, and then there was nothing.

“I’m gonna go find Candace,” Parker announced, pushing herself unsteadily to her feet.

“She’ll be back in a minute when the lights come up,” Bren said, reaching for Parker’s arm. Her mind was still filled with images of Jae, but she had enough awareness not to let Parker wander around by herself. Plus, she had a feeling that Candace had gone off alone for a reason. When Candace was upset, her remedy was always the same. Find a woman to take her mind off her troubles.

The lights came up and Parker blinked, searching the room uncertainly. Then her expression darkened and Bren followed her gaze. Candace was at the bar in a clinch with a woman who had one hand on Candace’s breast and the other on her ass. Apparently they were too far into their deep-throat kiss to notice that the act was over and they were visible to whoever cared to look. Or, typically for Candace, she just didn’t care.

“Son of a bitch,” Parker growled.

She tried to climb over Bren and almost fell. Bren jumped up and grabbed her. Parker was taller and heavier than Bren, and rapidly becoming dead weight.

“Reilly,” Bren called. “Can you give me a hand here?”

“Go ahead,” Liz said, sliding off Reilly’s lap. “Why don’t you walk her around a little bit. Maybe get her some air.”

“I better. Sorry,” Reilly said as she rose.

“No, that’s okay. She needs you right now.”

Liz moved across the empty seats and joined Bren as Reilly put her arm around Parker and led her away. “What happened?”

Bren pointed to Candace.

“Oh, what is she doing,” Liz exclaimed.

“She’s upset.”

“Good, now so am I,” Liz said angrily. “When is she going to grow up?”

“Well, not toni—” Bren stared at the woman coming toward her. Jae now wore a black leather vest, low cut black leather briefs, and calf-high black boots.

“Oh my,” Liz said. “Isn’t that—”

“Yes,” Bren said quietly, shifting on her chair until her legs stretched into the narrow aisle between their table and the next.

Jae stopped next to Bren, leaned down, and whispered, “You wanted a dance.”

“No,” Bren corrected, “you wanted to dance for me.”

“May I?”

“Yes.”

Jae nodded toward the bar, and the lights went down and the music came up. Then she straddled Bren’s lap, flexing her thighs and holding herself just a little bit above Bren so that her ass barely brushed Bren’s legs. “You’re not supposed to touch me, but you can.”

“I’m not going to touch you,” Bren said, aware that Liz had shifted away, leaving them alone. The room was dim enough to give them privacy but not so dark that she couldn’t see Jae’s face, and her body. “Not tonight, and not here.”

“When?”

Bren wondered how long Jae could support herself without touching Bren for balance. With the same iron control Jae had shown on stage, she slowly circled her hips over Bren’s lap.

“Open your vest,” Bren ordered.

Without a second’s hesitation, Jae flicked open the single button and the leather parted, revealing her breasts just inches from Bren’s face. Her nipples were hard. Jae rolled her hips, her crotch a whisper away from Bren’s stomach.

“Show me how you like your nipples touched,” Bren said. Her own nipples tightened as she watched Jae grasp her nipples, stretch them out, and twist rapidly.

Jae grunted softly and her thigh muscles quivered. She murmured, “I want to rub myself against you. I need to feel you.”

“Yes.”

Immediately, Jae leaned forward, gripping Bren’s shoulder with one hand. Her breasts brushed Bren’s face, and the leather between her legs, supple and soft from the heat beneath, caressed Bren’s bare stomach.

“Did you come when you went backstage?” Bren breathed the words against Jae’s throat as Jae undulated against her body.

“No,” Jae gasped.

“I’m not here to finish what someone else started.” Bren wanted to draw Jae’s nipple into her mouth and torture it with her teeth until Jae cried out. She ached to press her fingers into the vee between Jae’s thighs and work the smooth leather over her hard clit.

“I won’t come without your permission,” Jae groaned.

“You are not to come now.”

“God, I ne—”

“When you go home tonight,” Bren instructed, her lips caressing the hollow at the base of Jae’s throat, “I want you to make yourself come. I want you to imagine you’re licking me while you do.”

Jae shuddered. “I’m close now.”

“I don’t care.” Bren struggled not to grab Jae’s hips and thrust into her, knowing if she did they would both probably come. And this wasn’t the time or the place or the way she wanted it to happen. “How did you find me?”

“I didn’t.” Jae’s voice was steel wire stretched to the breaking point. “You found me.”

Bren couldn’t help herself. She bit the thick muscle at the base of Jae’s neck, once, sharply. “Behave.”

“Oh God,” Jae arched her back, pushing herself into Bren’s body. “Please.”

“Answer the question,” Bren murmured, licking the spot she’d just bitten.

“I didn’t…know if you would...come.”

Sweat dripped from Jae’s thighs and slicked the surface of Bren’s leather pants.

“But I waited...every night.”

The music was coming to an end, and Bren knew their time was almost up. She finally did what she’d been aching to do for so long she couldn’t remember the first time she’d imagined holding her in her arms. She skimmed both hands up Jae’s back, savoring her hot skin, and pulled her close. Jae dropped her head onto Bren’s shoulder.